Senator Bernie Sanders is hitting the road to pitch the reconciliation bill in red states. He is calling this the most progressive bill in a generation and based upon what he says, I would agree. Senator Bernie Sanders is unlikely to make such a statement if he can’t back it up. Since he sent this out as an email, I doubt he would be unhappy about it being quoted. However, due to its length, I will choose some snippets. First off, he announces the trips to Iowa and Indiana. He believes the content of this bill is likely to be popular with republicans. He is probably right, but that is before the right wing media which these people listen to demonize the bill. I hope republicans show up to listen, but I suspect that there will be progressives who live there but are outnumbered who will show up. Still, he should get some good press coverage, especially on local news which many seniors watch.
“Dear asdf
……..
I want voters in red states, blue states and purple states to understand that Congress will soon be voting on the most significant piece of legislation to benefit working families since the New Deal and the Great Depression, and that not one Republican will vote for it. Not one.”
He then points out that the same republican senators who will vote against this bill voted for the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Next he states that he wants to make clear what is (will be) in this reconciliation bill.
“addressing such structural crises as income and wealth inequality, climate change, health care, education and housing and, in the process, create millions of good-paying jobs.”
He says that it will be paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations.
“Yes. We will take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which charges U.S. residents the highest prices in the world by far for prescription drugs. Under our proposal, Medicare will finally be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices with the industry.” Many seniors have to ration their medication or can’t afford it. This situation is unconscionable. This will dramatically lower medication prices for America’s seniors.
“Yes. We will end the absurdity of the U.S. having the highest levels of childhood poverty of almost any major nation by extending the Child Tax Credit so families continue to receive monthly direct payments of up to $300 a child. We will radically improve our dysfunctional child care system so that no working family pays more than 7% of its pretax income on child care, and we will provide universal pre-K to every 3- and 4-year-old.” Child hunger is a disgrace in this country. We can reduce it tremendously (perhaps cut it in half) with the Child Tax Credit. This will be very popular. Children can’t learn when they are hungry! Universal Pre-K will help level the playing field and make it much more likely that students are successful in school and graduate. Every teacher knows this.
“Yes. We will expand higher education and job-training opportunities for students by making community college tuition-free for all Americans.”
Our economy ultimately depends upon our educational system. Community college will boost the opportunities for everybody, but especially people of color and those who live in rural areas.
“Yes. We will end the international disgrace of the U.S. being the only industrialized country not to guarantee paid family and medical leave.
Yes. We will expand Medicare for seniors to cover dental needs as well as hearing aids and glasses. We will also make sure that we have enough doctors, nurses and dentists in underserved areas, while expanding Medicaid to provide health care to the uninsured.”
Many of our seniors have health needs that are too expensive for them. It’s a terrible thing to be without glasses while legally blind. I know. I experience it every day. Seniors need to be able to see and hear.
“Yes. We will give hundreds of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities the ability to get the care they need in their own homes instead of being forced into nursing homes.” It’s a terrible thing for seniors to be forced to leave the home they love and lose their independence. This will enable seniors with disabilities to stay home.
“Yes. We will address homelessness and the national housing crisis by making an unprecedented investment in affordable housing.” The pandemic has revealed how vulnerable so many of us are, especially people of color. Once homeless, it’s hard to break out of the cycle because it’s hard to get a job. Too many people work full time and can’t pay their rent from one full time job.
“Yes. We will provide undocumented people living in the U.S. with a pathway to citizenship, including Dreamers and the essential workers who courageously kept our economy running in the middle of a deadly pandemic.” This once was a policy both republicans and democrats supported, but they became even more radical and are a white nationalist conspiracy theory party . This will actually help our economy in addition to being the right thing to do
“And yes. We will finally begin the process of combating climate change by shifting our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy. This effort will include a nationwide clean-energy standard that moves our transportation system, electrical generation, buildings and agriculture toward clean energy. We will also create a Civilian Climate Corps, which will hire hundreds of thousands of young people to protect our natural resources and fight against climate change.” The Climate Emergency is on. We have no time to waste. We must address this now. The longer we wait, the worse the consequences and the more disruptive the eventual adjustment will have to be. We can avoid the worst possible consequences of the climate emergency, but only if we start now.
It’s time to invest in America and all our residents instead of putting that money in trillion dollar wars and trillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthy.